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Justice News

District Man Sentenced To Six Years In Prison

On Charges in Armed Robbery and Shooting-One of the Victims Shot Multiple Times, Yet Survived-

WASHINGTON –Darius Joshua, 19, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to six years in prison on charges stemming from a 2011 shooting in the Congress Park community of Southeast Washington, announced U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr.

Joshua pled guilty in January 2013 in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to charges of aggravated assault, attempted robbery, and carrying a pistol without a license. He was sentenced by the Honorable William M. Jackson. Upon completion of his prison term, Joshua will be placed on three years of supervised release.

According to the government’s evidence, on June 21, 2011, at about 11 p.m., Joshua ambushed a man and a woman with a loaded handgun as the victims walked through a shortcut next to what used to be McGogney Elementary School in the 3400 block of Wheeler Road SE. He ordered the woman to the ground and put the gun to her head before robbing her and telling her to leave the scene. Joshua ordered the man to stay behind and then he shot him multiple times. The victim was rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery and survived the attack.

In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Machen commended the efforts of the detectives of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Seventh District who investigated the case, as well as the members of the community whose cooperation led to the defendant’s prosecution. He also thanked those who worked on the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Jim Brennan, Tanya Via, Laverne Forrest, Debra Cannon, and Michael Hailey of the Victim Witness Assistance Unit; Paralegal Specialists D’Yvonne Key and Richard Cheatham, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mervin A. Bourne, Jr., who investigated and prosecuted the case.